Global Winter Wonderland

This year we have a new Christmas attraction that is local. A "Global Winter Wonderland" in the parking lot area of the Great America Park in Santa Clara.

Guess they bought all the props from the Beijing Olympics at garage sale prices and set it up in Santa Clara. The whole thing was like a Chinese Christmas celebration with "Chineseized" doll displays of American icons including Disney themes!

The "Global" was thanks to the following displays and they were all very impressive.

The ticket prices were a rip off considering there was separate tickets (3$ a ticket per kid per ride) and an entrance ticket of 9$/person on discount! There should have been no entrance tickets for the kids and that would have come close to being fair. Nevertheless, we had already promised the kids that we were going there and we had no choice in the matter once there.

We made the most of a very cold evening and spent a good 3 hours wandering around the light displays, taking photographs and having the kids go on a few rides and try some of the carnival type attractions.

The kids were happy and tired enough to eat a speedy dinner and go to bed fast. So from that stand point it was a good deal! Next year we will be back to Christmas in the park. For all we know, might still take the kids there one of these days.

Some snippets of the three hours caught on video..

Next year if this attraction is still there, might go only if there are some discounted tickets... then again the rest of the family thought it was okay for the price we paid.

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Happy Thanksgiving

From the Indian American American Indian.. aka Little One who came home like this..

and Jr. who was thoroughly amused by the little one's dressing up in a pasta necklace and brown paper feathers.

The kids are going to give Kollu Paati a cheer up present tomorrow. Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day already!

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day - as told in Desi families!

We were driving around on sunday.

San asked Jr. "Tomorrow you dont have school. Do you know why?"

Jr.: It is Dr. King's birthday!

San : Who is Dr. King ? (For a second I was wondering why San was quizzing Jr. as I knew Jr. usually gives San a run for the money when it comes to facts)

Jr. : Dr. King is the guy who said "that's not fair!"

Me and San : Chuckling.."why did he say that?"

Jr.: In those days, white people had nice water fountains and all others had dirty fountains to drink from.. he said "thats not fair!" .. also the white people could sit in the front of the bus and the rest had to sit in the back and he said "that's not fair either!" and then he had a dream...

At this point, I was reallllly impressed with her school for teaching her all this. They have even shown the 5 and 6 year olds a video of the March in DC and the "I have a dream" speech from Dr. King!

San : what dream did he have?

Jr. : he had a dream that everyone can do anything they want!

San : Yes. But only after they are 18 years old!!

Jr. : Okay mommy! But when you are 10 years old , you can chew gum already! Right?

Me : Desperately trying to control laughter (telling San) "why do you have to corrupt the message!"

San : You can't just tell her she can do whatever she wants to do in the name of Martin Luther! She is a kid..

Now Jr. is having a dream!

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Christmas Party for Children

After the "Santa" interest was piqued at the Disney parade, the little one has been waiting for an "up close and personal" with Mr. Claus the last few weeks.

That picture is from the Disney Thanksgiving day parade.

Today, her wish came true, thanks to a Christmas party organized by IBM for the employees Children.. They did a fantastic job, staring with the photo with Santa, followed by Caricatures, face painting, balloons for kids, decorate a cookie and what not, all in the IBM Cafeteria!

Spent a few hours there and the kids had sooo much fun!

Here are the pictures..

This is a picture of a picture. Also, this is a cropped version without the older women..

The Caricature dude (Big Al) was amazing.. the kids posed for him really well.

Overall, a fun filled day!

ps. they called it the "Childrens Christmas party" and I thought it should be called Chistmas party for Children.. Hence the title change and repost..

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